It is not a strange question.
It is amazing how often “crazy-busy executives”, as Jill Konrath would say do not have the time to invest in making things better even though they know they could be.
How much stress would be created if sales suddenly increased by 50%? That’s a good thing, but it is amazing how much stress is created for people when they are already in overwhelm. There is a lot of investment in not creating changes.
People will go farther to avoid pain than they will to seek pleasure.
I like the post office commercial where the post man tries to explain that if a parcel weighs less than 70 pounds, if it fits it ships.
You can tell by the reaction of all the workers that there is real culture shock to something that simple making life so much better. The commercial is clearly making the point that people are skeptical about something too simple making life so much better.
And yet if that were a phone solicitation or an email, how many layers of bureaucracy would that proposal have to survive to become a reality?
I understand the risk of venturing into the unknown in terms of both time and money, but is there a way to venture without risk? Without risk, things may never improve.
Most B2B businesses are learning to create new services without terminating the old ones, creating low cost or trial starts, and giving customers the opportunity to opt out. This may be the type of questions or service to pursue if you know something needs to change, but you are afraid of the risk or shock to your culture.